


A Duet Can't Be Sung Alone

by Bluecow13



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Acting, Actor Eren Yeager, Actor Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Alive Carla Yeager, Child Eren Yeager, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eren Is a Little Shit, Erwin's Eyebrows, F/M, Falling In Love, Fate & Destiny, Gay, Good Parent Grisha, Happy Childhood, Idiots in Love, Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin) Being An Asshole, M/M, Theatre
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-31
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-07 04:40:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11051532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluecow13/pseuds/Bluecow13
Summary: This is based vaguely off of the movie "Sing"A story about love stories of multiple generations, coincidence, and one little broken down theatre that made it possible: The Yeager Family Theatre.





	1. Falling in Love like the Old Times

**Author's Note:**

> Hey!  
> This is my first fic and I really hope you like it! Please leave a comment and kudos if you enjoy it.

“Buying some falling apart monstrosity of a theatre isn’t going to mean anything for your dreams of stardom if you go bankrupt from the first monthly payment.”

Ignoring her father’s jab at her income, eyes like amber slowly panned over the building noting the chipped paint, semi-rotting wooden panels, and the cigarette butts littering the doorway. No one could look at this building and see any sort of future here but her. 

She took a few steps forward and subconsciously began chewing on the end of her thumb in excitement as an ambitious smile stretch across her lips. The building began to change in her eyes. ‘Well, of course we’ll keep the classic feel but stripping the outside shouldn’t be too hard. After that we just need to work on those bathrooms and the lobby and it's practically ready.’ She began planning the ‘easy’ changes to the classic theatre, deaf to her father’s pessimistic words about the ‘Unfixable hellhole she wanted to destroy all of her savings on to try to fix.’ This was her chance to change everything in her life and she refused to let a single comment he dad said ruin a day like today. 

If she could just show everyone else what she saw in the building there wouldn’t be any of these silly problems with cost or structural stability.

“Excuse me,” A soft voice interrupted pulling her from her daydreams, “Are you Carla Yeager? I’m Grisha Feldman, the real estate agent for this building.”

Forcing her head to look away from the creaky building, Carla turned around to greet the stranger. When she turned though, she had to hold in a small gasp. The man’s eyes were quite lovely and Carla couldn’t make herself look away even when the time for a polite amount of eye contact had expired. Blue and green reflected back at her amber eyes as Grisha blushed and shuffled his papers around, obviously unused to the attention. 

Feeling a little sorry for his discomfort, she walked over and stuck out her hand, a dopey grin appearing on her face. “Nice to meet ya! I’m Carla Yeager and I’m gonna buy this joint!”

An expression of shock passed over his face before he shook it off and gave her a small smile. Quickly reaching forward he grabbed Carla’s hand and gave it a quick squeeze. “Nice to meet you too, Carla.” Their hand stayed connected for a few seconds too long, the eye contact heightening the strange pounding of their hearts--”

“And then Mommy and Daddy fell in love, right?” An excitable five year old interrupted as he smiled up at his mom.

Carla let out a soft chuckle and leaned down to kiss Eren on the nose. “Your Dad and I actually fell for each other much later than that but the first meeting was just something...special.” The words, despite sounding sappy, pulled a loving smile from her lips and she ran her fingers through Eren’s short, soft, brown hair, brushing it out of his face. “Now go to sleep sweetheart, you have to get up early tomorrow for school.”

Eren’s face scrunched up at the mention of school. Untucking his arms from under his comforter, he put his finger to his chin a moment like he was in deep thought before snorting, “Nahhh. How ‘bout you tell the story of the time when Daddy surprised you with a trip to Paris, and you were so shocked you fell into a fountain!” Eren giggled at the thought of his mother doing something so silly like falling in a fountain. Slowly Eren’s giggling built until he began to wiggle around the bed in his comforter with all of his excess energy that he had regained.

Carla let out an exhausted sigh as her energetic son managed to wiggle out of his covers and jumped onto her lap. Turning to check the clock on Eren’s nightstand showed her salvation, fifteen minutes were up.

“Grisha!”

“What?”

“It's been fifteen minutes! Time for us to switch and you can put try to put Eren to sleep...again!”

Assorted grumbles spilled from Grisha about how it was the third time this week Eren got too excited for bed and forced them to play this little trading back and forth game as Grisha stood up from the leather armchair in their living room and meandered up stairs trying to delay his duties. He made his way up to Carla and Eren on the second story of their home slower than necessary just to buy some more time for...emotional preparation. ‘Maybe if I go make Carla some tea, she can stay with Eren a little longer and calm him down a bit before I get in ther-’

“Grisha, don’t you dare try to skip out on this wonderful time with your fully wake son!”

Letting out a huff, he walked the rest of the way up the stairs and rounded the old wooden banister, walking into his son’s room with a vague sense of dread. Grisha loved his son with all of his heart but there were certain times with Eren was...just a little too much to handle. That was honestly most of the time.

Crossing the dark room, Grisha lifted Eren from Carla’s lap into his as he plopped down on the polka-dotted comforter. 

“I love you angel, but you got to go to bed...come on Eren! I’m sure you're tired, think of all the things you did today, that took a lot of energy, right?”

By the looks that took over both Carla and Eren’s faces Grisha realized a little too late that was the wrong thing to say right now.

“Oh, Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! I totally forgot about it before, but now I remembered! I wanna show you what I did in gymnastics today!”

Oh god.

Eren’s never going to sleep.

\-------------

Birthdays pasted.

Graduation pasted.

Anniversaries pasted.

Eren Yeager is no longer the argumentative hyper excitable five year old he was. Now he is an argumentative hyper excitable legal adult with no idea what taxes are or what to do with his life. 

Pretty typical.

Moving and going to college were the typical choices after high school and Eren decided ‘Why not? Not like I’ve got big plans yet anyway.’ He picked a collage about three or four hours away, depending on traffic so his parents could still see him on holiday weekends and short breaks while he got to experience the city life he always wanted to try out. Moving away from home was always nerve-racking for kids, especially if their mom and dad will live far away now too but Eren’s biggest concern was with the the old Yeager family theatre.

Carla’s dream to buy the theatre was carried through the very same day she meet Grisha, in the face of her father's protests and, despite not entering a relationship together for sometime afterwards, they began working together to fix it up. The theatre was never some large gala building, just a plain stage with attached backstage rooms and a modest lobby area. At its maximum, the auditorium could hold 500 people, but the few times there had been even more people who showed up for a performance, they were packed onto the stands walkways and sometimes even on folding chairs on the floor.

The outside was the most classic part of the theatre and despite the deep cleaning, remodeling, and painting that it needed to prevent some sort of accident with falling rotten wood it had been infamous for, it now held a refined look to it. Carla and Grisha finished their full remodeling about a year and a half after Carla bought it. They were married two months later.

The Yeager Family Theatre held a new play performance about every three weeks so Eren had grown up in the hustle and bustle of the backstage while his mom and, periodically if his mom could convince him, his dad would act on stage. Sometimes, they would need a child to play a role and Eren was always the perfect child to fit the part. On stage, all of Eren’s little argumentative habits disappeared and he changed into a singing, dancing, and acting star, occasionally out shining the other grown actors with his charm and enthusiasm. Eren grew into the role of an actor on and off the stage, always performing and trying to make people laugh.

Leaving the little theatre was hard and Eren found himself missing the building more than some of his old highschool friends. Not to say Thomas, Mina, and Zack weren’t great friends, but the memories in the old theatre kept him from truly ‘leaving’ home as he could never see himself somewhere else. He had a few boyfriends while he was away at college but none of them lasted long as none of them even pretended to care or understand the importance of his family theatre.

He returned to his hometown for good when he was twenty-four and had a major in Theatre and The Arts. Eren began working with his parents full-time, writing and acting in plays at the theatre and living in his own apartment a few blocks away. In the beginning, everything was great but eventually Eren started to feel off.

Something was missing. Eren couldn’t figure it out. He was acting, he was back home, and he should be happier.

Three days later, the solution hit him.

Well, more like punched.

Right in the nose.

Hard.


	2. Young, Reckless, and a Little Confused

“You can’t hang that prop up there, the ties aren’t big enough for that and it’ll slip.”

Silver eyes glared down harshly from the top of the creaky ladder he was standing on at the intruder as the little shit had the audacity to insult his work. ‘Who in the hell let some little brat in here?’

“I’ve worked in props for years and despite the fact that I’m new to this theatre, it doesn't mean that I’ve suddenly forgotten this shit. I know what I’m doing, now get lost. I don’t need you staring over my shoulder while I’m setting everything up.”

Turning back to his work, Levi assumed that the boy would run off, offended and huffy. 

‘It's almost a shame he left, he had pretty eyes,’ Levi’s brain supplied without prompting. ‘No! No. I am not going down that path. The kid was some doe-eyed asshole with a big mouth and now he’s gone, so shut up brain!’

“Well, you clearly didn’t learn prop setup well enough to begin with if you can’t see that the chandelier will fall if you hang it there. Any idiot can see that that you’re doing isn’t going to hold.”

Twisting his head back to stare the kid who hadn’t so much as shuffled from where he had been before Levi’s dismissal of him. Almost impressive.

‘It's not often that someone stands up to me and my (admittedly pretty harsh) resting bitch face so it's almost refreshing to hea- Wait! What did that little bastard say to him?’

Nope. Fuck this kid and his pretty eyes.

This kid was really testing him, wasn’t he? Who was this kid anyway to just waltz back here and start talk like he owned the place. Ten dollars said that he had never run props before, let alone seen in depth tech for a production.

Climbing down the ladder and stalking over to the cocky brat after putting the chandelier down, Levi jabbed his finger in the brat’s chest. “Listen here, you little shit. I have done this for years and like I said I don’t need some little brat following me around.” 

Every other word was punctuated by a sharp jab to his chest as he stared straight into those narrowed cerulean orbs simmering with a tangible anger. ‘Shit...They were kinda pretty...like the ocean. Wait! No! Stay focused on the task at hand.’

Opening his mouth to let out a stream of insults, Eren was interrupted by Erwin clearing his throat. 

“Clearly, I missed something here, but at least you two have met already. Eren, this is Levi Ackerman. He’s the new props director for the show and an old friend of mine. Levi, met Eren Yeager. He’s the owners’ son and despite usually acting, has decided to run our costumes in this show.”

Levi’s eyes widened minutely as he stared at Erwin while he mentioned Eren's parents. Fuck. First day on the job and he already insulted his bosses, albeit indirectly through their kid. How was he gonna fix this shit?  
An extended hand broke into his peripheral vision and Levi turned to stare at Eren standing there with a simple smile on his face and a teasing look in his eyes. The anger had disappeared from them both at Erwin’s diplomatic entrance and personality and in that calmness a new sort of interest began to form.

“I know I insulted the very core of your being with a suggestion on how to do your job differently,” Eren started, unable to keep himself from teasing the other man who seemed to have a different mindset now that he knew Eren wasn’t just some dumbass who walked in off the street. “Wanna truce? This show will be hell if props and costuming go to war.”

Meeting Eren’s hand with his own and giving it a shake, Levi decided it couldn’t hurt to try to tease Eren back a little bit either, at least to try to patch things up between them. “I mean if you need to surrender, just surrender. I won’t hold the fact that you couldn’t handle this against you.”

“You think I couldn’t handle it?”

“Well you seemed to be pretty excited to fight before Erwin showed up, I gotta give you a chance to say you wanna back out instead of trapping you to a minimum of three weeks with me.”

“You can’t get rid of me. I’m staying.”

Neither had let go of the handshake yet, still maintaining eye contact as they both tried to figure the other out. Their hearts seemed to take this time to beat faster than normal, raising their tension and excitement. 

Erwin interrupted their strange standoff, uncomfortable about being forgotten so easily. “Well, you guys will have lots of time to work this out since props and costuming need to share a room so the actors will have enough rooms to get ready in.”

Neither turned their heads towards him, but it was clear by the smirk on Levi’s face that they had heard him.

“Think you can hand it, brat? You’ll have to put up with my bitching pretty often if we share a room”

“Pshh! I’ve dealt with theatre assholes my whole life, give me a challenge!”

\-----------

The backroom that he was expected to share might have been bigger in Eren’s mind because when he walked in there the next day, sleep-deprived due to the inability to remove a certain someone’s silver eyes from his mind, ready to start sketching the designs for costumes in the upcoming play, he saw Levi laying things out on his light table.

“Umm, what do you think you're doing?”

No bothering to turn around, Levi torn off a piece of tape and stuck it down on the table to section off another area for similar props to go together for the play.

“I’m doing my job brat, do you need something?”

Normally, Eren could hold his tongue on small annoyances but this was getting to be too much for his possessive, exhausted, and emotional brain to comprehend. He had always been protective of his stuff back here in the tech area but more than anything else Eren treasured his light table. So he did what he was famous around the theatre for doing: Overreacted.

“Yeah! I need you to get off my light table and I sure as hell need you to take all that tape with you when you go!”

“Woah, calm down. I didn’t know, I just thought it was for group use. Just cool your shit.”

Eren could feel his eye start to twitch. “Calm down. Just calm down? Are you fucking serious? This is my workroom that you are sharing. You don’t get to mess with all my stuff and act like you don’t understand why I’m angry, you fucking midg-”

Tumbling backwards, Eren covered his nose with his hands as the pain from the punch began assaulting his senses. Letting out a little moan from pain, Eren turned his gaze back to Levi ready to give him a piece of his mind. Meeting Levi’s eyes turned out to be the wrong decision though as the piercing silver gaze that was directed at him froze him in place and made his heart stand still.

“Listen closely,” Levi snapped in a low voice, sending shivers down Eren’s spine as Levi took a few steps closer and stopped, staring down at him. “I will not stand here and be yelled at by you. I’m good at my job. I'm damn good at it and I love it, but that doesn’t mean I have to stand here and be berated for something that isn’t my fault by some entitled asshole. Now go clean yourself up and be back here in fifteen minutes if you think you can still handle working with me. We have a lot to do today and not much time.”

“Yes sir.”

\-----------

“Do you hate me?”

“Why would I hate you?”

“You were angry about me using your table. I shouldn’t have hit you to make you stop. You were just venting a little and I overreacted. I’m...sorry.”

“I was exhausted and acting like a dick. It was a lot to take in when it happened, but now that I’ve slept and had some coffee, I’m not going to hold it against you. Honestly, I’m the reason that all happened. I’m sorry too”

...Truce?

“Yeah, truce.”

\--------------

“If I throw this shitty sketch for Mike’s costume into the recycling bin, you’re buying me lunch!”

“Pfff! You are on, you asshat! I’ve seen your aim.” 

 

“...I want out of the deal.”

“No! You agreed, no backing out now!”

“Goddamn it.”

\-------------

“Hey Eren.”

“What?”

“What do you think Erwin would say if I handed all the actors torches with real fire instead of fake?”

“I think his eyebrows would fly away away in fear of danger.”  
“Shit! Levi! Stop choking on your water, whats wrong?”

“Nothing. I just...you think his eyebrows are crazy too? No one else comments on them so I thought I was going crazy!”

“God! They’re insane! One time, I showed up to work high and I thought they waved at me. I wouldn’t come out of the storage closet. I mean, It's not the hardest time I had to come out of the closet but it's a close second.”

“Shit, Levi! Why are you choking again?”

\-----------

“Hey Levi, you should come over for dinner! I’ll make that chicken you like to steal from my lunch.”

“Where and when?”


	3. Falling in Love Like a Shit Show

“What the fuck do you mean, ‘Armin shoved you down a flight of stairs so you wouldn’t tell his crush that he liked her?’ How are you two still best fucking friends after that?”

Eren and Levi were sitting on Eren’s couch, laughing at their friends mannerisms after finishing Eren’s home cooked meal. The evening had started with quiet awkward tension in the air, but as soon as Eren tripped on his way to the kitchen to grab food and let out a stream of insults, the tension eased. ‘Just like home’ Levi snorted when Eren tried to play it cool. After that the two of them got back into their regular habits of teasing each other and halfheartedly complaining about things that irritate them.

Over the past two and a half weeks, Eren and Levi spent about nine hours together every single day just preparing for the upcoming performance and in that time Eren developed a little problem.

He started falling for Levi.

It honestly started pretty gradually with them chatting during their little lunch breaks to them helping each other find the perfect fabric for a costume or prop for this one scene but it soon escalated to finishing each other's jokes and working together to finish large projects like the lead’s ‘hand-tailored jacket that can’t be mis-stitched’ or the ‘critical engagement rings for the newlyweds!’

That was a fucking adventure: Shopping for rings with Levi and trying to pretend his heart wasn’t going crazy.

But now with Levi in his house, everything just seemed natural. Like this is how it was meant to be. 

“I mean, you can’t stay mad at Armin! He’s a little angel, sorta Satan sometimes, but mostly a little angel.”

Levi smirked leaning closer to Eren on the couch they were laying on, so close Eren could feel his breath heating up his skin. The air seemed to change as Levi moved, from light to heavy.

“What do you think of me, if we’re talking about people who are assholes. Am I an angel or a demon?”

Demon. 

Definitely Demon. 

Because no angel could talk in that deep, smoky voice or look at him with those dark mysterious eyes and still remain innocent to its effect on him.

The air in the room seemed to get tense with Eren’s continued silence. Eren felt his face get warm and tried to think of something to diffuse the strange mood that settled in the room but he couldn’t think with those piercing eyes staring into what felt like his very soul. Levi leaned closer in the silence while Eren leaned back a little so Levi practically laid on top of him, their lips were centimeters apart.

“So what do you think, Eren?” Levi whispered against Eren’s lips, a small croon coming out of the smoky voice when he said brunet’s name. “Angel or demon?”

“Neither. Both. Fuck, just kiss me!” Eren snapped, surging forward and smashing their lips together.

Fireworks seemed to dance behind Eren’s eyelids as his tongue battled for dominance over Levi’s, their hands roaming over each others bodies. 

Something seemed to cross Levi’s mind as he pulled back, separating them despite a thin strand of saliva still connected their bottom lips.

Levi let out a deep breathe trying to regulate his breathing as he straddled Eren’s waist. “Eren. We need to talk before anything else happens between us.”

Trying to discreetly regulate his breathing from the impromptu make out session, Eren peered up at Levi in confusion and worry. ‘Please don’t tell me you regret this.’ Eren began chanting in his head as Levi tried to find the right words to start the conversation.

Running a hand through his hair, Levi huffed out an exasperated breath. “I-Fuck! I...don’t know how to say something...um...like this but let's give it a shot. I...really, really like you. Like we met and I kinda hated you...but then we spent time together and you were always...there...to help me on projects or fucking build a prop with me. I mean, hell! We went ring shopping together and I kept asking which one you would want! I mean who does that? We weren’t even dating and I was indirectly asking you to marry me! Like why was I-”

Eren pressed his lips to Levi’s in an attempt to calm his little rant. 

“Levi... I...really like you too. Like a lot.”

The light that appeared in Levi’s eyes made the weeks of pining and worrying disappear in an instant.

“Really! I...Fuck, really?”

“Yeah! I...love...you…”

“I...love you too.”

\----------

“Do I get special perks as the bosses’ son’s boyfriend? 

“PSSHH! No! If I don’t get perks as their son, you sure as hell don’t get any!”

\-----------

“Don’t talk to me.”

“Come on, I didn’t know that they were going to buy me a brand new fucking prop table!”

“I am their only son! I still had to buy all my tables and shelves independently. Why are you so special, Mr. Kiss Ass?”

“I think you figured it out in the name you called me…”

“...You’re sleeping in your fucking car tonight.”

“Come on, sweetheart. Don’t be jealous! They have to love you, you're their only son. I have to work on that shit constantly! Just enjoy the fact that they aren’t pissy that you're dating someone who's older than you. Later, you know what we can do, just us, to make all of this better?”

“Hmm, what’s that?”

“Planning how to convince them to buy us some new chairs.”  
“Wha-what’s wrong?”

“I thought you were talking about sex, not making a plan to embezzle chairs from my parents!”

“Oh. Oh! Yeah, let’s do your plan inste-”

“Nope! We’re planning how to get new chairs! You decided it!”

“Or...Or we could do your thing…”

\----------

“Hey Eren.”

“Yeah?”

“Can I tell you a weird secret?”

“Sure…?”

“Its nothing bad, I promise! Just, when I first showed up here I thought this place was a temporary job and a semi-quick way to get money before I left town. I mean, the rumors about what this place used to be like almost scared me away permanently, but I-I showed up and Erwin hired me as the props director kind of as a show of good will between us before I moved on. 

We had always been friends and I guess he was telling me he supported whatever I wanted to do with my life, even if I didn’t know what I wanted to do.

He walked me through all the parts of the backstage area and then left me to string up some minor prop and set items as a ‘test run’ and I honestly thought I might just leave. The building was old and some areas looked pretty questionable mold-wise, but a certain brat happened to walk in just then and distract me from my, admittedly poorly planned, thoughts of escape.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Hush and listen to my story! Well, I decided to stay after our little introduction and/or fight depending on how you want to see it, and see where things went. I started falling for the job and I realized that this wasn’t as bad as I thought. Well, also you were nice too, but like so was the building once I got to know it, I- this is...um...fuck this is falling apart quickly.”

“Levi what are you trying to say right now?”

“Eren, I… really love you and I don't want to...leave anymore. I never wanted to leave you, but I didn’t know how this was going to work when I left town so I guess I might have always had a foot out the door. These past few weeks have been fucking amazing though, probably some of the best of my life. You’re funny and sweet and just an incredible person to be around all the time and...if you're okay with it...I want to stay...permanently. With you, and your parents, and this run-down, ridiculous, lovely, little theatre.”

“...Really?”

“Yeah. I’m willing to stick around if you’ll have me, you okay with that?”

“Fuck yes!”

“Woah, shit! Calm down Eren!”

“No, fuck that. I love you so fucking much!”

“I love you too.”

“I love you most!”

“No, I love you the most!”

“No! I- Truce?”

“Yeah, truce you fucking brat.”

“Oh, shut it and kiss me old man!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AWWW! Thank you for reading this fic and for leaving kudos! I really hope you liked it and leave a comment!


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